The Attorney-General of the
Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has said that
the leadership of the National Assembly has resorted to threats and intimidation,
in a bid to force the judiciary to support its move to re-order the sequence of
the 2019 general election.
The AGF personally appeared
before the Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday for hearing of the suit filed
by the Accord Party.
The senior lawyer berated the
Upper legislative chamber, describing its response to the order the court made
to preserve the Res (subject matter) of the case as “a sad development.”
Malami tackled the lawmakers
after counsel to NASS, which is the 1st defendant in the matter, J. B. Daudu,
SAN, drew attention of the judge to the furore he said the preservative order
the court made on March 14, generated in both national and international media.
Daudu had insisted that the court
order, which stopped the NASS from taking further action on the Electoral Act
(Amendment) Bill, 2018, that President Muhammadu Buhari declined to assent to,
“has once again, placed the judiciary in the eye of the storm.”
Daudu made the assertion while
responding to remarks by counsel to the plaintiff, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN,
who decried that decision of the court to protect the subject matter of the
case his client brought before it by asking all the parties to maintain the
status quo, was grossly misconstrued “in some quarters.”
Olanipekun said, “What happened
in this court on March 14 was that though the plaintiff’s counsel applied for a
preservative order in form of some injunctive reliefs, the court, in its
wisdom, simply ruled and held that parties should maintain status quo
antebellum.
“Unfortunately my lord, this has
been misinterpreted in diverse and several quarters, including the 1st
defendant, as the court preventing it from carrying out its legislative
duties.”
Displeased by the comments, the
AGF urged the court not to allow itself to be intimidated, saying his office
would support the judiciary to discharge its constitutional duties.
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